CANADIAN RELOCATION
QUEBEC PROFILE

Quebec: Population: 8.18 million (2014); Area: 594,860 square miles (1,540,680 square km).

Quebec is bounded by the Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay to the north, Newfoundland to the east, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and New Brunswick to the southeast, the United States to the south, and Ontario and Hudson Bay to the west. Its capital, Quebec city, is Canada's oldest city, and Montreal is one of the largest cities in the country.

The original inhabitants of Quebec were members of three Indian peoples: the nomadic Algonquins and Montagnais, who lived by hunting and fishing north of the St. Lawrence River, and the Cree, who lived in the southwestern part of the territory. Inuit (Eskimo) peoples later settled in the north around Hudson Bay, where they lived mainly by fishing and hunting.

In 1791 Canada was split into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (the future Ontario), roughly following the Ottawa River boundary. Although throughout the province the rural population remained overwhelmingly French, Montreal became the domain of English merchants who were bitterly anti-French.

These English merchants tried in 1822 to obtain an Act of Union that would give the English-speaking population a majority in the country as a whole. The reaction of the French-Canadians to this attempt at domination prepared the way for the 1837 rebellion led by Louis-Joseph Papineau. The rebellion was suppressed.

A new Act of Union that was passed in 1841 joined the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and in 1867 the British North American Act created the confederation of Canada by the federation of the four provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. French-Canadian nationalism became a permanent feature of Canadian as well as Quebec politics.

The majority of Quebec's population are of French descent. A low birth rate among French-Canadians, coupled with a high migration rate out of Quebec, have contributed to a slight relative decline in the population. The other nationalities represented are English and Irish, and there are also a growing number of Italians. Nearly 62,000 people identify themselves as Indian or Inuit.

Mining, hydroelectric power, and forestry are the main industries. Until the 1940s agriculture was the largest sector but has since been exceeded by industry. Quebec's greatest economic potential lies with the Canadian Shield, containing one of the world's largest reserves of minerals, including copper, gold, zinc, iron, and asbestos.

The government of Quebec created several corporations to survey mineral resources and stimulate their exploitation in terms of both extraction and manufacturing. Only a small part of Quebec's ore, however, is processed in the province.

All electric power was nationalized in 1963, and the resulting company, Hydro-Québec, is the largest producer of electricity in Canada. Quebec processes much of its annual forest harvest, which is second only to that of British Columbia in Canada, with many pulp and paper plants.

Complete integration in the general transportation system of Canada and North America has promoted Quebec's economic development.

The French-Canadian movement for national identity has asserted itself in terms of cultural and political struggle. Under the leadership of such men as Papineau, Louis Lafontaine, Henri Bourassa, and the abbé Lionel Groulx, the province evolved its special vocation as the "political home" of French-Canadians, and the government assumed responsibility for the defense of French culture.

Premiers Maurice Duplessis and Jean Lesage, during their administrations, politically promoted French-Canadian nationalism. The Front de Libération du Québec was responsible for numerous acts of violence in the 1960s and '70s, including the assassination of Pierre LaPorte, the labour minister of Quebec in 1970.

In 1968 René Lévesque defected from Lesage's Liberal Party and formed the Parti Québécois, advocating independence for Quebec. Lévesque's party won the elections in 1976, and as premier he sponsored a legislative program to promote the use of the French language and curtail the use of English in government and commerce.

Lévesque's independence program, however, was defeated in a referendum in 1980; he was also the only premier to oppose the Constitution Act of 1982, but the Quebec Supreme Court denied his request for power to veto it.

The Quebec provincial government consists of a unicameral National Assembly, elected by universal adult (age 18 and older) suffrage to a four-year term. The leader of the majority party in the assembly becomes the premier and selects the Executive Council.

The lieutenant governor is selected by Canada's governor-general to represent the monarch. Judges are appointed by the federal government, but Quebec's civil law follows the French continental model. The province has its own police force, La Sûréte du Québec.

Primary and secondary education through grade 11 is free and compulsory; classes are taught in either French or English in separate schools. Quebec has a collegiate program divided into a two-year general-education course (required for university enrollment) and a three-year professional, technical, and vocational course.

The French-language public University of Quebec in Montreal has several campuses, including those at Chicoutimi, Trois-Rivières, Rouyn, Hull, and Rimouski; it also administers research institutes and continuing-education schools as well as a television extension program.

The Ministry of Cultural Affairs, created in 1961, provides financial assistance to museums and theatrical, ballet, and musical companies and to book publishing.

Canada's National Theatre School, located in Montreal, promotes both traditional and modern French, English, and bilingual theatre, and Quebec city is a centre for the film industry.

The province is renowned for sports--notably hockey, Canadian football, and baseball--all of which have large popular followings.

SHARE THIS PAGE ON:

---